'No remarriage with Shiromani Akali Dal as far as I go': Hardeep Puri on patch-up buzz

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 10

The BJP on Saturday denied immediate possibilities of a reunion with old ally Shiromani Akali Dal and reiterated its call to the Akalis to join the saffron outfit.

Amid buzz that the BJP could be engaging former allies to rebuild the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance, of which the SAD was a crucial component, senior party leader and Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri today said, “I am not in the remarrying category as far as the Akali Dal is concerned.”

To a question whether the BJP and SAD could contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in alliance, Puri said, “That is a decision for the party to take but an understanding between the two parties can mean a lot of things. Many good people from the Akali Dal have already come over to our side and we have worked with some of them in Jalandhar. Many people from the Akali Dal can come and join the BJP.”

Puri, who is active in the Punjab BJP, said the party might extend invitations to erstwhile NDA partners in case 25 years of NDA are celebrated (the NDA was formed in 1998), but that does not automatically mean a marriage with all ex-allies.

“Suppose you have your 25th wedding anniversary celebrations. If you are happily married, everyone will eat the same cake. But if you are not married or if you are divorced, you will still call your ex-spouse for a celebration. Whether that means you are trying to get remarried I don’t know. But I am not in the remarrying category as far as the Akali Dal is concerned,” Puri said answering a query by The Tribune at BJP headquarters here.

The senior minister, who was in-charge of 60 BJP booths during the recent Jalandhar byelection, which the AAP won handsomely, said Jalandhar results should not be read simplistically. Some political observers are arguing that the BJP and the SAD votes put together could match the AAP in the Lok Sabha bypoll.

“This is a very simplistic analysis. The Akali Dal fought the Jalandhar Lok Sabha byelection in alliance with the BSP. So much for Opposition unity, yesterday BSP chief Mayawati has also said that in 2024 she is going to contest on their own,” Puri noted.

He said in the 60 booths where he was in-charge in the Jalandhar parliamentary segment, the AAP polled 31 per cent votes and the BJP 29 per cent.

“We were not too far behind the AAP. The problem in Punjab is that the old alliance we had with the Akali Dal meant that out of the 117 Assembly seats, we were never contesting more than 23. And so there were large tracts in rural areas where we were not there,” the veteran leader argued.

Noting that “good things are now happening in Punjab for the BJP; Puri added, “I want to choose my words carefully about something I witnessed during the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection and again during the Jalandhar LS byelection is that a pan-India party which is growing has begun to appear in areas where it was conspicuous by its absence in Punjab including in rural areas. In urban areas we were already there.”

Privately, top BJP sources said while some previous NDA partners could be engaged, some were “impossible to engage”. They did not define which old ally belonged to the “impossible ally segment.”

Sources, however, added that the alliance talks were dynamic and nothing could be “confirmed or denied at the moment.”